Tearmoon Empire - Anime Discussion
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First episode was great and I’m really looking forward to seeing the rest of it.
I wonder how they’re going to handle the “people think Mia is doing X for a grand benevolent reason, but actually she’s doing it for this far smaller reason” aspect of the story
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The good outweighed the bad by a lot—but I’d feel dishonest if i just list the good. If criticism for something you love bothers you, just stop reading after the ‘good’ section.
Good: The animation for Mia and Anne was great. Everything from their expressions to how they made the difference in size work well, made me happy. They put the prison scene and execution together very well. They put more detail and expression in the secondary maids than they had to—and it really helped the scenes. For the amount of time they had for the episode, they paced it well.
The good enough: Chef Musta should have been bigger—or shown at angles that draw attention to his size relative to Mia—he needed to be big enough that one would expect that Mia would be completely intimidated by him so that it is funny when he is intimidated by her—missed opportunity. But the at least the chef’s subs were pretty good. The voice acting was fine. Opening and closing songs were fine (though the older Mia’s lips look a little funny).
Not-so-good: knew going in there wasn’t going to be a dub—but it could have benefited from a good one (most comedies do better dubbed imo)—especially with subtitles that were just okay. The bright palace backgrounds did not look good on a big screen TV—it might look better on a phone. No narrator. It was too short—I want more! -
@jazzyjeoff said in Tearmoon Empire Anime Announced:
It was too short...
Yes. This could really have done with a double-length opener because, although of course the prison/execution sequences are vital to establish the premise, the episode as a whole simply fails to set the tone of the story. And that seems to be confirmed by some of the reviews I've seen online by people who think it's some kind of redemption thing and therefore have missed the whole basis on which the comedy rests.
The bright palace backgrounds did not look good on a big screen TV
Looked fine to me. How big a screen are we talking here? And were you watching it in Rec. 2020 (which I think 4K TVs are supposed to aim at) when it was probably only made for Rec. 709?
The only backgrounds that didn't work for me were the "mountains in the distance" during the cake scene, which looked like a painted stage backdrop.
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@jazzyjeoff said in Tearmoon Empire Anime Announced:
No narrator.
I think Narrator-kun first appeared after the ending credits as a voice introducing the various colored moons.
IIRC, Narrator-kun didn't start getting sassy until after Mia caught up to Four-eyes. So we'll probably get a lot of Narrator-kun next week.
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@endoftheline said in Tearmoon Empire Anime Announced:
So we'll probably get a lot of Narrator-kun next week.
I hope so, I can't see how everything is going to work without him.
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@Angelus
I just remember the external image of the palace looking like something out of a very old video game—it probably colored my impression of the other palace scenes. -
@jazzyjeoff ah, I see what you're getting at.
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Just watched episode 2, while not quite as emotional as the first, it might be even better for what it managed to accomplish—fitting in so much of volume 1 without feeling completely rushed and introducing both the phenomenon of Miaitis and a bit of the feel of the narrator as well. I think the way it has been written should appeal to folks who have read the LN or the manga or folks not acquainted with either.
—Practically perfect in every way! -
It also establishes the tradition of the narrator giving Mia zero credit.
Ludwig figured out exactly what Mia was trying to do, and the narrator acted like it was a fantasy. Sure, she had a little help from her counterfactual diary, but she really did bring Ludwig to the slums to make him aware of the possibility of an epidemic.
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@rsog412 said in Tearmoon Empire Anime Announced:
It also establishes the tradition of the narrator giving Mia zero credit.
Ha! Ha! Right!
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On another note, I think the musical scoring and design for this anime is very well done. I don't mean the opening/ending themes (though those are alright too), but the choice of music for each scene is spot on, and little things like the way the music stops for a few beats when Mia trips up (like accidentally referring to Ludwig as four-eyes at 9:33) make it even better.
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I'll admit, the first episode played things so straight that they had me worried a little, despite some good Mia faces. The second episode, however, settled things down and already seems to have found the right balance between the serious and the silly. Aided and abetted by the full use of our favorite narrator, of course!
I laughed so hard at that scene that it got my cat's attention 😹
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@xdrfiredogx 2nd episode proved it is so dedicated to Mia faces that they’re in the OP 😂
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@rsog412 said in Tearmoon Empire Anime Announced:
It also establishes the tradition of the narrator giving Mia zero credit.
An exceedingly jaundiced perspective on the part of the narrator.
Ludwig figured out exactly what Mia was trying to do, and the narrator acted like it was a fantasy. Sure, she had a little help from her counterfactual diary, but she really did bring Ludwig to the slums to make him aware of the possibility of an epidemic.
The Omniscient Narrator makes it clear that her admirers are wrong concerning why she's doing what she does.
She isn't some 'Great Sage Equal of Heaven' or anything, she just doesn't want to literally lose her head!
It's all about Mia in the end.
Even the last bit can be argued that way, as it doesn't tie into any of the great dangers her diary warns her of, it's just that she'd like to read the rest of the story, so the author needs to survive to finish it.
Pure selfishness.Doesn't change that her actions are changing the course of history...not as much as she'd like so far, but her diary confirms that changes are occurring, it's just that each problem solved is followed by the appearance of another problem that had been masked by the previous problem...or so it seems.
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@rsog412 That cut from Mia internally grouching at the guys who stole her jewelry back into the church scene of her, with the saintly background music was perfect. That's the kind of addition you want to see from an anime adaptation that the written forms can't give you.
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@Geezer-Weasalopes said in Tearmoon Empire Anime Announced:
@rsog412 said in Tearmoon Empire Anime Announced:
It also establishes the tradition of the narrator giving Mia zero credit.
An exceedingly jaundiced perspective on the part of the narrator.
Ludwig figured out exactly what Mia was trying to do, and the narrator acted like it was a fantasy. Sure, she had a little help from her counterfactual diary, but she really did bring Ludwig to the slums to make him aware of the possibility of an epidemic.
The Omniscient Narrator makes it clear that her admirers are wrong concerning why she's doing what she does.
She isn't some 'Great Sage Equal of Heaven' or anything, she just doesn't want to literally lose her head!
It's all about Mia in the end.
Even the last bit can be argued that way, as it doesn't tie into any of the great dangers her diary warns her of, it's just that she'd like to read the rest of the story, so the author needs to survive to finish it.
Pure selfishness.Doesn't change that her actions are changing the course of history...not as much as she'd like so far, but her diary confirms that changes are occurring, it's just that each problem solved is followed by the appearance of another problem that had been masked by the previous problem...or so it seems.
…except for the snarkless moment where she rescues the boy—the episode was even more powerful in the book—because both Mia’s inner-dialogue and the narrator’s commentary are completely silent—because this is Mia in her true form and no amount of tsundere silliness or psuedo-omniscient snark can completely camouflage our saintess Mia.
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@Geezer-Weasalopes I've said it before, I'll say it again, Mia's selfishness is the best kind of selfishness. It's the "a large cake sliced into twelve slices is more cake per slice than a small cake sliced into eight!" school of selfishness. If you only get one slice, make it count.
Also, Mia's just... a good egg? Deep down? She's just had everything handed to her on a silver platter and didn't get to meet Ludwig until he was too little, too late — a mistake she's fixed this time around.
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@TheGrimLich @jazzyjeoff
Mia wants her share of the pie.
She doesn't have a problem with the pie being large enough for others to have some.
She just hadn't thought much about that aspect the first time around.
She's a tad lazy, after all.
Somewhat self-centered.
Privileged, even.Incipient neck pain can be a great motivator in the long run.
She can't coast through life to the extent she'd prefer.She may or may not give a bleep concerning the masses.
When she sees individuals she cares.
And she does grasp that the masses are composed of individuals.
That she remembers her treatment during her imprisonment for a number of years prior to her execution allows her to understand the plight of the downtrodden, those ground under foot by society as a whole; she's borne the brunt of that herself.The Mia reactions, the internal motivation contradicting what others impute to her...
When dealing with really serious depressing matters, a bit of humor can help.
Gallows' humor, although in this case more like guillotine's humor.
She's not some do-gooder with high ideals and no connection to those her actions impact.
Unbeknownst to everyone she's experienced all of these things herself, and didn't enjoy it very much.
She's motivated to not have it happen to her again.
To not have it happen to others as well.
But it's not theoretical, not hypothetical futures she's bring Four-Eyes attention to, not a matter of her seeing these as possibilities that should be prepared against; she knows these are real. She lived through them, and has the record of that in her diary.That has a lot to do with the conflict between her view of herself and how others view her.
They think she's extrapolating forward as a result of study, cogitation, and concern.
She thinks she's scrambling to avoid the chopping block.
While it's true that she is seeking to avoid being beheaded...she's focusing first on preventing the chain of events leading to a desire on the part of others to have her slain; if they have no motivation it won't happen.
Just in case she fails in that she's also considering how to get the hell out of Dodge when everything goes to pot, but that's the backup plan, not the preferred plan.
That she's choosing to attempt to change the course of her country in preference of just focusing on getting herself out of it is the thing that grants more validity to the external view than she (or at times the narrator) seem willing to concede. That's a choice she made. -
@Geezer-Weasalopes, in a way I think Mia has a lot in common with Rozemyne, or at least Rozemyne before she got involved with the royals. Her actions were often framed as being motivated solely by her desire to read books in peace, but they ended up improving the lives of countless people. Mia's motivation is simply to avoid the guillotine (well, and to eat delicious sweets) but it has a similar outcome.